It’s a difficult task to get the correct leads—and just the right leads—from marketing to sales. A qualification strategy that separates the prepared from the unprepared into the appropriate buckets can assist define leads. Some businesses categorise leads according to different stages:
Marketing-Qualified Leads: These are leads that have shown enough interest or interaction to convince marketing that they are real.
Sales-Accepted Leads: Leads accepted by sales are leads that will be followed up on.
Sales-Qualified Leads: Leads that have advanced to the opportunity stage after having been qualified by the sales team or the development team.
As this is the common ground for sales and marketing teams of all sizes, we’ll concentrate on the relationship between the marketing-qualified and sales-accepted lead today.
What are “qualified leads”?
When marketing decides a lead is prepared to be given to sales, this is the definition of a “qualified lead.” The first and most crucial step is to gather the sales and marketing teams to discuss and agree upon what this implies. Without a common meaning, the two sides will be operating from separate playbooks, which is no way to triumph.
Make sure you do this correctly by following these seven steps.
1. What Is a MQL? Establish a common definition
This definition must be developed in collaboration between sales and marketing. Even with the greatest of intentions, marketing frequently defines each stage of the lead lifecycle without sales ever seeing or accepting it. The MQL stage won’t help your company much unless there is agreement from both parties and a clear definition of what a lead is at each step.
2. Commence by using your buyer personas as a guide.
Start by identifying your target market! Refer to the profile characteristics and purchasing cycles of your target buyer personas.
3. Request sales feedback informally.
It’s instructive to sit down with each sales representative and ask them, “What is a qualified lead for you?” while developing a MQL. or “Which leads do you find the simplest to call into and qualify?” Even if marketing need not agree to provide only these kinds of leads, it is essential to get as close as possible to defining a lead in a way that sales will accept.
4. Establish the firmographic and demographic requirements.
Pick elements that are already well-represented in your customer base. Demographic and firmographic characteristics commonly used include industry, company size, location, and the buyer’s role, but you should include any factor that makes sense for your unique purposes.
5. Ascertain the behavioral requirements.
People leave digital traces that reveal their interests and, perhaps, the urgency of their problems. You’ll create standards for determining whether activities qualify a lead to talk to sales by observing consumer behaviour. For instance, leads who ultimately make a purchase may have previously downloaded particular white papers or attended particular webinars. A person may be acting urgently if they spend a given amount of time on a pricing page and come back to it numerous times over the course of a day or two.
Some organizations ask “Would you like to be contacted by sales?” on their registration forms to make it easy for a lead to self-identify as an MQL who is ready and willing to talk to sales – right now.
6. Predict whether marketing will be able to produce enough quality leads.
If your qualification criteria are overly stringent, marketing might not be able to generate enough leads for sales to fill the pipeline. This is a crucial step in the lead definition process, and sales and marketing may need to come to an agreement on it. In some instances, a broader MQL criteria will need to be accepted by sales in order to generate enough leads to complete the funnel.
7. Review the MQL specification every three months.
Sales and marketing should get together every three months to discuss whether the MQL definition needs to be changed. For instance, you might be able to connect with a completely different demographic if you’re launching a new product.
Conclusion
Getting started with this process is typically the most difficult step. But it’s a good use of time that will result in more sales quotas being hit, quicker sales cycles, and higher qualified leads for both teams.
